


unsolved

by RiiasShorts



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (to come in chapters 2 and 3), Alternate Universe - Buzzfeed Unsolved Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Banter, Ben is Ryan, Cryptids, F/M, Fables - Freeform, Inspired by Buzzfeed Unsolved, Monster Hunters, Rey is Shane, Smut, Spooktacular Collection, Time Skips, Urban Legends, brief mention of pregnancy and childbirth in a retelling of a story, cameramen Finn and Hux, producer phasma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:40:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26806021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiiasShorts/pseuds/RiiasShorts
Summary: Buzzfeed Unsolved AU - Rey is Shane, Ben is Ryan, and they're in New Jersey for a very special Halloween episode of Galaxy Unsolved!
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21
Collections: Reylo Readers & Writers - The Spooktacular Collection





	unsolved

**Author's Note:**

> here's my contribution for day 4 of the reylo readers & writers spooktacular collection: monster hunting!! i didnt have time to write both chapters, but i will soon :)

“Welcome to a special episode of Galaxy Unsolved! This week, we’ll be taking on…” Ben pauses for what Rey’s sure he  _ thinks _ is dramatic effect, but it just gets on her nerves.

“Jesus Christ, Ben, just say it or I will.”

“Look, if you’re going to be like that, I’ll just--”

“Goddammit, Ben!”

“Okay!” Ben shouts, indignant. God, she loves getting on his nerves. “Jeez,” he mutters, then, “On this special Halloween edition of Unsolved, we’re in New Jersey to investigate the elusive Jersey Devil.”

“Have you played  _ The Wolf Among Us _ ?” Rey asks, thoroughly derailing whatever Ben was going to say.

He rolls his eyes. “Can’t say I have.”

“The Jersey Devil is in that game, and it’s  _ beautiful,” _ she gushes.

Chuckling, Ben shakes his head. “Rey, either tell me to get to the point  _ or _ derail my intro. You can’t do both.”

“Sorry!” she squeaks and shuts up.

Ben slips back into his narrator persona. “We’ll be spending two nights in Leeds Point, the supposed origin of the Jersey Devil. The first night is for research, and we’ll go looking for it on the second night.”

“Alright!” Rey grins.

* * *

LEEDS POINT, NEW JERSEY

OCTOBER THIRTIETH, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY

16:00 EASTERN STANDARD TIME

A small group gathers outside a little cottage near the coast. Just beyond the house is a field of reeds that shields the neighborhood from the stormy Atlantic.

Phasma, who is, to any onlooker, quite evidently in charge, checks with everyone in the party. Rey and Ben head up the bunch, followed by two cameramen, Finn and Hux, and the statuesque blonde takes the rear.

Rey steps onto the third and final step of the little porch leading to the cottage’s front door. She knocks three times, clear and certain.

The red door swings open. A little old woman pokes her head out. “You must be Rey,” she says, then turns to the man behind her. “And that makes you Ben.”

The younger two smile. “Yes, ma’am,” Rey says, holding out a hand. Her eyes shining, the elderly woman shakes it.

“Do come in.”

She hobbles back into the space of her home, and Ben waves the other three in alongside himself. They follow, quick to scrub their feet on the mat just inside the door. It gets muddy on the coast sometimes. 

“Can I get any of you anything to drink?” the woman offers. The group politely declines, and she nods, settling into an armchair by the lit fire.

Finn and Hux set up their cameras and then place a third for a wide-angle shot. When they’re finished, there’s a camera on Ben and Rey together, one on the woman, and one on all three of them. 

Phasma nods, and Ben begins.

“This is Maz,” he says to the camera, “who has lived here for… how long?”

The woman,  _ Maz, _ smiles. “My whole life. As for how old I am, a lady never tells.”

No, they don’t, but the wrinkles pressed into her skin hint at a life of smiles and wear by weather. Her forehead, covered in blotches, is testament to a brutal sun. 

“Of course,” Ben concedes kindly. 

There’s a moment of silence that leaves years of a hard life untold. 

“So, you’ve seen the Jersey Devil?” Rey asks.

Maz smiles conspiratorially. “I have.”

* * *

LEEDS POINT, NEW JERSEY

MAY FOURTEENTH, NINETEEN SIXTY TWO

1:00 EASTERN STANDARD TIME

A young woman walks down a quaint suburban road. It’s late, and the streetlight above her head flickers faintly. The street she’s walking on merges with another road to her left, and she watches for cars as she continues through the intersection.

Her whole life, she’s heard stories of this place. There’s a ditch off in the trees near hear, overrun with brambles and thorns, where, on a godforsaken night in 1735, a mother gave birth to her thirteenth baby, only for it to morph before her eyes into the child of the devil. 

The bushes on the side of the road rustle. The woman startles.

A bunny races across the road.

She takes deep breaths to calm her racing heart. It was only a rabbit. There’s no devil child here. The stories are just that: stories. Myths, folklore made up by the Puritans that once lived where she now resides. Tales to dissuade mothers from wishing ill on their unborn children. Cautionary fables that emphasize the importance of each babe born from a righteous mother.

Those values remain remarkably untouched in the close-minded community of Leeds Point. The youth of America are expanding their perspectives as this small town on the coast remains firm in its outdated beliefs.

“Maz!” A woman’s voice calls from the house through the trees. 

She looks up. “Hi, Mrs. Miller!”

“Best get home before your mother starts worrying,” Mrs. Miller scolds.

Maz only smiles politely. “Yes, Mrs. Miller.”

Her pace accelerates as she walks the road home. She can hear the sound of the waves faintly crashing against the marshy shores of the nearby bay. There is nothing but trees between her and the reeds that mark the beginning of the ocean. From there, there’s only the barrier islands in the way of the open Atlantic. Sometimes she and her friends paddle out to the islands just past the bays to sit on the sand and look out at the vastness of the saltwater. They weave the stories of the people living in front of them, a whole ocean away.

Her home, a little yellow Victorian house, is within sight when a crashing comes from the trees. Startled, Maz staggers backwards a couple paces.

There, perched in the branches, is a mutant of a creature. In the shadows, she nearly mistakes it for an ordinary goat, but then it moves, and her eyes widen in fear.

Its neck stretches upward. Double as long as any goat’s neck she’s ever seen, it raises the hollowed contours of its head to an opening in the trees, where its piercing eyes have an unobstructed view of her, the woman wandering home past dark. On its back, two furled wings uncurl and extend, stretching wider than Maz’s own height. Two horns protrude from its angular head, curling backwards in a clear sign of the devil. 

It screams.

The sound pierces Maz’s eardrums, sending a sharp ringing noise straight through her reeling brain. In fear and pain, she falls, curling her body over her bent legs. She knows that if the beast chooses to make her its prey, there’s little she can do. But its shrieking splits her head in a searing ache, and she clamps her ears closed with her hands as she risks a glance up at the branch.

The Devil has not moved; it has only extended its neck downward so its head reaches toward her cowering form. 

The awful screaming finally ceases. Maz reaches for her bag and clutches it to her chest before running the rest of the way home.

* * *

“Wow,” Ben breathes. 

Rey nods thoughtfully, unbelieving yet respectful. She keeps her reservations to herself.

Maz smiles. “I was no older than twenty five at the time, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. Never in my life, even since, have I felt that same fear.”

Ben hums. “Were you scared that it was going to hurt you?”

“Of all the stories I’d heard,” the old woman admits, “never had I been told of an instance when it caused anyone more harm than a fright. Still, in the moment, I was scared for my life.”

They’re quiet for a moment, everyone in the room lost in their own thoughts about the woman’s story. 

Maz’s wise eyes turn to Rey. “You don’t believe me.”

Rey startles. “I… I don’t mean, I mean, I--”

“Don’t worry, child,” the woman soothes, “I take no offense.”

“Good, I don’t mean any. I just don’t see how such a thing could exist for so long with so little record.” Rey chooses her words carefully, not wanting to come off as scornful of the woman’s long-kept secret.

Maz nods. “There is a record,” she says, “if you know who to ask.”

* * *

LEEDS POINT, NEW JERSEY

OCTOBER THIRTY-FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY

20:00 EASTERN STANDARD TIME

“Are you two ready?” Phasma asks, tightening the strap of Rey’s chest harness. They’re standing outside their rented SUV, right on the edge of the trees where the ruins of the 18th century midwife’s house are rumored to be. The setting sun bathes the trees in the last of its golden rays.

Rey nods confidently. “I am.”

Ben smiles boyishly, if a little uncertainly. “I’m excited to see if we get anything, but I’m also scared that we might.”

“We aren’t going to get anything,” Rey scoffs, rolling her eyes. “This thing doesn’t exist, I keep telling you that.”

“Rey, I--”

“Save your banter for the camera,” Phasma scolds warmly, patting Rey’s shoulder as she finishes strapping the GoPro to her chest. Squirming, Rey tests the give of the harness while Gwen moves to stand behind Ben. The five of them talk about nothing in particular as Phasma secures the cameras on Ben’s body. 

Once everything is in place on Ben and Rey, Phasma gathers Finn and Hux to talk as a team. “So, two hours of filming at the easier-to-reach areas, so Finn and Hux can follow you two,” she gestures to Ben and Rey, “with the cameras, and then you’ll go off alone. While you’re out there, we’ll be camped in the car, and we’ll have radios in case you get lost or anything.” All four of them nod, and Phasma steps back, satisfied.

“Alright, and off we go,” she says, gesturing to the forest. “Ben and Rey first.”

* * *

LEEDS POINT, NEW JERSEY

OCTOBER THIRTY-FIRST, TWO THOUSAND TWENTY

23:00 EASTERN STANDARD TIME

Ben turns to Rey. “Don’t you feel… weird about this place?” 

Rey rolls her eyes. “You’re just scared now that we’re alone.”

“I’m not!” Ben insists petulantly. It only takes Rey arching a brow for Ben to concede. “Okay fine, but only a little.”

“Whatever you say, Benny boy.”

“Rey, what have I told you abou--  _ oh my god!” _

Rey rolls her eyes, used to Ben’s jumpiness, especially when it’s just the two of them. “What is it, Ben?” She steps towards him and looks where he’s pointing.

There’s a hoof print in the mud. 

“Oh,” Rey says dumbly, “well damn.”

Ben looks at her, incredulous. “How are you not more freaked out about this?” he cries.

She just shrugs. “It could be any animal with hooves.” Ben’s face is torn between fear and disbelief.

Pushing some of the shrubbery out of the way, Rey steps deeper into the woods. It’s a good thing they saved this area for the filming slot without Finn and Hux; the thorns are so thick around here that she’s sure at least one of them would be scratched by now.

She takes a step, but her foot falls farther than she expects, and her weight gets thrown off balance. In an instant, she goes careening forward.

Two sturdy bands of warmth encircle her torso. She’s pulled backwards against a firm wall.

It’s Ben, his arms holding her to his chest. 

Rey exhales shakily. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Ben responds, but he doesn’t let go. She could protest, but instead she instinctively relaxes into him.

Ben seems to realize, and he goes to pull away. “Sorry, I--”

Rey shakes her head, effectively silencing him. “It’s nice,” she breathes.

His chest shakes with a light laugh. He hums, then rests his chin on the crown of her head. Together, they sigh contentedly.

“Ben?”

“Mhm.”

“I think I found the ruins of the house.”

Ben lets go of her abruptly. “What?”

“Yeah, that’s why I fell, I think.” Now that she’s not wrapped in his arms, she steps forward and inspects the ground in front of her. Sure enough, there are remarkably square stones stacked in a crude wall. The forest floor drops in the space enclosed by the remains of the old home. 

“See?” She points around to the stones.

Ben’s eyes widen. “Oh god. Yeah, I see.”

They each eye the old structure for a moment, then Ben seems to remember his role as narrator. “One of the origin stories of the Jersey Devil,” he says, fear audible in his voice, “is that in 1735, a woman here in Leeds Point was giving birth to her thirteenth child. Beca--”

“Wait,  _ thirteen?!”  _ Rey screeches.

Ben snorts.

“Jesus fucking  _ Christ! _ That hurts  _ my _ vagina, and I’m not the one giving birth to thirteen children!”

“I’m sure,” Ben says dismissively. “Anyway, because she’d had thirteen kids at that point, she, according to legend, cursed her thirteenth and wished for it to be the devil.”

“Right, because that makes sense. Don’t want your kid? Pray for it to be the  _ literal devil.” _

“Rey,  _ please!” _

“Sorry!”

Ben sighs. “She gave birth at this house, where we’re standing. The child was normal but morphed into a, quote, ‘devilish figure’ minutes later, then escaped out the window.”

Rey blinks. “Um. Well. Fuck.” Then she snorts, cracking up. “Imagine how  _ fucking insane _ that would be if that actually happened.”

“Maybe it did,” Ben protests.

Throwing him an apprehensive look, Rey asks, “Do you  _ actually _ think that happened? Like, for real.”

“Fine,” Ben admits, “I don’t think that happened, but still.”

“Ha!”

Ben groans. “I still think the Jersey Devil is real.”

They banter for a second, laughing and joking.

A twig snaps, mere feet away.

“Fuck! You heard that, right?” Ben squeals.

Rey goes quiet too, scared that there’s something very human in the woods with them. She nods when Ben looks over his shoulder at her.

There’s a flash of something dark in the woods.

Rey looks at Ben.

And then the creature screams.

**Author's Note:**

> lmk what you think! <3
> 
> im on [twitter](twitter.com/riiasshorts)


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